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Prophetic Warnings
This section originally appeared within the "Spiritual Intelligence" section of Part II of the Manifesto, entitled The Prophetic Dimension. This section, and where it appears within Spiritual Intelligence, is indicated below, followed by the text of the section * Normal Intelligence * Paranormal Intelligence * Biblical Examples of Spiritual Intelligence * Prophetic History in CAWKI * God's GPS * Amos 3:7 Principle * Ways not Works * Disciples that God seeks "Preach to the tree!" * Industrial Revolutions compared * The Inspiration Age (the 4th Industrial Revolution) * Prophetic Pictures * Benjamins * Prophetic Warnings * When the Stones cry out ---- Riding the wave of new promises and prospects, some have begun to publicly lay claims to this leadership and loudly trumpet: “We are the ones you have been looking for!” Sadly, America is one of the nations that have been leading this for some time now. In the words of Teri Lee Earl: “It is somewhat dismaying, even shocking, that a group of prophets can get together and decide they are ‘high level,’ ‘national,’ or ‘international’ prophets, announcing themselves as though they are the greatest voices of America. Jesus said, “They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues... The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” But one does not have to be a prophet to discern odd things. Good common sense helps, too. A good place to discern spiritual pride is not only the self-announcement, but also the financial and relational price religious customers have to pay for learning ‘new wave,’ ‘cutting edge’ words or teachings. However, in the midst of a corrupt and toxic materialistic environment in the Western church we should not be overly surprised if prophets make profits and apostles sell epistles. Especially since the arrival of the Internet, many of us are bombarded with advertisements and excited announcements about ‘apostles’ and ‘prophets’ and their books or conferences. A great diabolical strategy would be for Satan to, yes, see the coming of a new time, new ministries, and a new church, and then try to ruin it by pushing actors on the stage before they are ready. If we look around in classical Christianity, there is really no shortage of immature, wanna-be apostles and wanna-be prophets, often rejected and therefore insecure individuals who have not yet overcome their own bitterness and rejections, waiting for their great coming-out day. And no one will deny the existence of simply uncrucified religious alpha-males, who are more testosterone than Holy Spirit driven, who just love the thought of becoming a spiritual king, admired and enthroned by the praise of his lesser subjects – or his peers. These are the easy prey of Satan as he recruits folks for a demonic and strategic disinformation campaign, attempting to distort biblical truth and create a cynical backlash against all things prophetic and apostolic. UK Church planter Bernard Sanders says it like this: “We should not be surprised to see the devil try to put up a smokescreen of premature, counterfeit, or illegitimate apostolic ministries in order to confuse the faithful and burn the ground, so that when the real thing comes, everyone will have already gone home, disappointed by countless fakes, unfulfilled hopes, and gives no more than a tired wave of his hand when he hears words like apostolic and prophetic.” Steve Snow writes: “I sense in the Lord that the Apostolic reformation is about to burst forth upon the church. There will be two streams. One will seem prominent with many “big-name” people declaring their apostolic credentials. The other stream will be the ‘unknowns,’ those who have been trained and developed over time - those who are ‘nobodies’ in themselves. I also sense a warning - the apostolic stream - the prominent ones by those who are known to many - will be used by the enemy to turn the church leadership into a dictatorship. This will be a return to the same conditions that occurred in the 2nd C AD when local elders - called Bishops – became higher ranking regional leaders, and eventually one became the Pope. The Lord, though, is raising up his apostles - those called, those created, molded over time, those who are humble, those who are broken, for upon these will the Lord’s authority be poured out. These are the ones who understand authority and will give their very lives for the church of God, should that be required. The Lord says - resist the apostolic that seems right - the one that seems as if it will succeed.”